Hi Wsomm . . .
The difficulty is to use chlorine without creating terrible stains -- chlorine oxidizes copper from its current condition to one that is much less soluble.
Anything I tell you would be an experiment, but you can try this, if you like:
1. Start filtering 24/7
2. Lower your pH to 6.9 - 7.0 using acid (muriatic acid, preferably)
3. Aerate the pool using anything you can that will make bubbles -- if you can adjust an eyeball so it 'ruffles' the water, that will help.
4. MAINTAIN the lowered pH -- it may rise rapidly at first, depending on how well you aerate.
5. Add *small* doses of chlorine in the evening -- but ONLY after testing the pH and verifying that it is low. I'm not sure how many gallons your pool has, but you'll want to keep the doses below 0.5 ppm of chlorine. I would start with 1 cup of bleach per 10,000 gallons added DIRECTLY to the skimmer with the pump running. This will probably cause staining INSIDE the filter, but I assume that won't be a problem. If you pre-mix the bleach with a couple of gallons of water, and pour it slowly into the skimmer, that will reduce any copper/chlorine loss.
6. Get a testkit that tests for TOTAL chlorine -- a cheap OTO / phenol red kit is fine. Do NOT add more chlorine till the kit shows none is present.
7. Keep aerating and lowering the pH till it stabilizes. At that point, most of your carbonate alkalinity will be gone.
8. At that point, you can raise your pH to 7.4 or so, with borax (20 Mule team) using 2 cup doses and retesting.
Several things to note:
a) The chlorine will by destroyed by several hours of full sun, so it can only be effective added at night.
b) Your levels of copper plus ANY chlorine will turn blonde or gray hair green as grass. Do not let anyone with light hair go into the pool while there are BOTH copper and chlorine present.
c) You cannot use citric acid and chlorine together -- they will just destroy each other.
d) You may have a LARGE accumulation of oxidizable goo in the pool. Normally, I'd just have folks clean it up quickly with large doses of chlorine, but you CAN NOT DO THAT. A large dose of chlorine will result in horrendous stains. So, it's quite likely you'll need many small doses.
e) Once your pool is clear, you may want to go to a regular dosing program with chlorine. Key elements of this are small doses, low-ish pH (7.0 - 7.4), low carbonate alkalinity.
You do NOT need much calcium in your pool -- do NOT add more. You can gradually replace your carbonate alkalinity with borates. This will tend to happen over time, if you lower your pH with acid and then raise it (as needed) with borax.
A final caution: copper levels like you have will kill algae, and inhibit bacterial growth. But there will be little or no effect on viruses and no rapid effect on bacteria. This means your pool water probably won't GROW anything hazardous, but it also won't do anything to protect you from bacteria or viruses shed by another swimmer in the previous 24 hours. As a practical matter, if someone with a cold or diarrhea swims -- even if they shower first -- you'll probably get a cold or diarrhea if you swim, prior to a chlorine treatment.
Best wishes,
Ben
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